Resumen de An integrated framework to support design & engineering education
Marina Carulli, Monica Bordegoni, Umberto Cugini
The current particular critical moment for the Western industry, and the introduction of information technologies have profoundlychanged the product development process. One of the most important modifications occurred is the integration of the twotraditional fields of product design and product engineering into the new concept of industrial Design & Engineering. Theconsequent shift and the extension of the designer’s area of expertise concerning the product development process have led toamplify his typical knowledge: both more and more technical knowledge, and also knowledge more focused on conceptual issuesand creativity. This trend is fostered by the intensive use of computer systems and also by various Design & Engineering courses,where it has been possible to experimentally observe the difficulty for students to learn the necessary body of knowledge and tomanage a wider product development process. However, the multidisciplinary approach to the product development process and tothe related education issues are still based on tools and methods developed for a specific kind of user, or usually used in anunarranged way. The research presented in this paper aims at defining the guidelines for developing an integrated framework tosupport the Design & Engineering education and the multidisciplinary design process based on a structured integration ofknowledge and tools currently used by the two main areas of reference. The paper presents the guidelines for the integratedframework and the experimental activities used for the framework validation. These activities have allowed the authors to checkthe framework usability during team design activities and also to verify its effectiveness in improving students’ learning capabilities.Some elements derived from the analysis of the experimental data demonstrate that both students and professional designers canuse the framework to assist them throughout the design process and that the knowledge learning related to the project is fostered.
